I’ve got some shit I’m conservative about and some shit I’m liberal about. Crime—I’m conservative. Prostitution—I’m liberal.
—Chris Rock, 2008
Archive
Quotes
Put national causes first and personal grudges last.
—Sima Qian, c. 91 BCEvery creature in the world is like a book and a picture, to us, and a mirror.
—Alain de Lille, c. 1200I love everyone now that I have gray hair.
—Polatkin, c. 1855People can say what they like about the eternal verities, love and truth and so on, but nothing’s as eternal as the dishes.
—Margaret Mahy, 1985Fame is but the empty noise of madmen.
—Epictetus, c. 100Men are merriest when they are from home.
—William Shakespeare, 1599’Tis a portentous sign / When a man sweats and at the same time shivers.
—Plautus, c. 180 BCExtraordinary how potent cheap music is.
—Noël Coward, 1930He that commands the sea is at great liberty and may take as much and as little of the war as he will.
—Francis Bacon, c. 1600Think rich. Look poor.
—Andy Warhol, 1975Jests and scoffs do lessen majesty and greatness and should be far from great personages and men of wisdom.
—Henry Peacham, 1622I rather think the cinema will die. Look at the energy being exerted to revive it—yesterday it was color, today three dimensions. I don’t give it forty years more. Witness the decline of conversation. Only the Irish have remained incomparable conversationalists, maybe because technical progress has passed them by.
—Orson Welles, 1953